Dear Family and Friends Tina’s passing on 8th April this year has left a void that is impossible to fill. Time, support of family and friends and pressures of existence have all done their bit to ease the pain but there is not a day that I don’t miss her. In the recent past there have been many worthwhile distractions in the form of projects that have occupied me. Projects that I promised to myself I would take up as a reminder of those wonderful and inspiring times we spent together and things that Tina would occupy herself with. They were mostly in areas where she gave of herself and also pursued her personal interests like arts, crafts, dance, music, helping old folks, environmental activism, travel etc. To this I am adding a few that I enjoy too eg heritage protection and children’s education……. From these have arisen some pursuits that I have engaged in these past few months and they have given me huge amounts of peace and calm and have helped me come to terms with many of the mysteries of Tina’s passing. I have grown to appreciate her even more in her absence and find joy in the pursuit of these lovely initiatives. So I am not sitting in a corner and moping all the time. I am rebuilding and learning to smile again and I know Tina is around all the time. The activities that I am engaged in as of now are detailed here. At some point I intend to instituionalise these into an NGO of sorts. Am discussing the structure with some experts in the field. At that stage I will reach out and see if any of you are keen on getting involved with any of the specific areas to keep the initiatives running either through your physical participation or through other contributions. a)Supporting old folks with basic necessities, medicines and a support mechanism for hospital visits etc in Kunnankary village area. Kunnamkary is where Tina’s family home is and where her mother stays. We have adopted 17 old folks at this point of time. Project being supported by Celia and Sonia b)Supporting the primary school in Kunnamkary –Kerala with equipment, computers, a building for pre-primary children and financial assistance for hiring specific teaching skills. Project being supported by Celia. A similar project is brewing in Mumbai with the Udayan Shalini Fellowship program for girls helped along by my friend Sanjeev Gupta c)Reaching out with my personal time mostly to the girls at St Catherine’s Home in West Andheri in Mumbai. Its largely a time commitment and I go there with Sushi. d)Creation of a music CD with the help of my musician friends as a tribute to Tina. I would like this to extend into an ongoing program with young musicians being mentored by seniors. Am in discussion with the artiste friends on the viability of this and any alternate suggestions. The CD project was done with the assistance of Uttara and Warren Mendonsa. The videos of the event and individual songs were made by Sushi and have been uploaded on Youtube. e)Partnership projects with Shoonya the dance school in Bangalore started in memory of Tina’s nephew Appu. This school currently has studios and engages in bringing together young dancers in areas of artistic movement and the Feldenkrais method. This will be done in conjunction with Tara Anjali Ollapally f)Environmental publications for schools in conjunction with CERE And possible environmental scholarship programs in conjunction with Dr Rashneh Pardiwala. A similar project for a small scholarship program is being discussed with my friend Bittu Sahgal to help support young naturalists to pursue projects which protect Indian wildlife and forests g)A museum for arts and heritage. This one is at the drawing board at this stage and I am initially going to launch an E Version followed by a possible brick and mortar structure. The E Version is ready and needs to be populated with the exhibits and will be done in the coming months. I have a friend in mind who could help me with this but need to reach out and check if their time is available for the same. I hope to find the energy to stay engaged and will draw upon the family as well as the time of friends to help me pursue this. I am convinced that in today’s day and age finding money for these activities will not be a problem. Many friends and family are already engaged with me in these projects and I hope their participation will continue into the future. Personally and I am sure many friends would want Tina’s memory to be perpetuated by activities that reach out and bring joy and happiness to others around us and through that make life a tad bit more meaningful….. Lots of Love - Paul
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 05:48:54 +0000
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